Deven Rich

Panoramas with photoshop

admin — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:32:32 +0000

Panoramas can be a lot of fun and allow you to create massive photos with just about any camera.

A few tips to keep in mind when shooting your next panorama

Shoot in manual mode with Auto exposure locked enabled to ensure you have a consistent exposure across your photos.

Overlap by about 20% to ensure Photoshop has reference points to use in merging.

The panorama below was taken from atop a mountain during a hike in Winifield/lake country BC. The lake on the left is kalamalka and Okangan Lake (right).
The photo was made using about 20 16 Megapixel images combined to make a 50 Megapixel final capture (17804×4584 pixels).

View Larger Scaled version (5760×1080)

Photoshops new panorama makers does an amazing job and lining up/masking.

Click on File > Automate > Photomerge

Click Browse and load your photos. Select your merging method (i generally just use automatic)

Iphone Photography

admin — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 07:34:28 +0000

Have you ever wished you had your SLR when you are randomly out and about? Alot of people with say a cheap camera is their limatation.. But now a days that is no longer the case. If you have the inspiration anything can work. Cheap cameras can have a toy-ish look to them, which can also be viewed as an advantage in creating a different look. Everyone seems to have a cell phone and with more and more smart phones coming out with built in cameras there is no longer an excuse to miss that perfect shot. A bunch of my favorite photos have been taken with my iphone!

Lonely Cemetery

admin — Mon, 23 May 2011 07:03:45 +0000

test

About an hour before sundown I arrived home and noticed the overly cloudy sky and figured it was the perfect opportunity to test out the new camera body.
f/4.8
1/2500 sec
50mm
iso-400

The above gazebo was sitting on the edge of the cemetary overlooking the city. This photo was taken using a 10stop neutral density filter
f/22
30 sec
20mm
iso-400

How to Recover a Dead Hard Drive

admin — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 23:40:51 +0000

When a hard drive dies more often then not its is one of two things;
1. A component on the circuit has shorted out
2. The hard drive has a head crash.

In the event that the drive has a head crash one know method has been to seal the hard drive in dual zip lock bags and place it in the freezer over night. When metal gets cold it shrinks and will allow a larger gap between the read head and the drive platter. Once you take it out of the freeze there is generally a 20 minute opportunity in which to pull off data, so get the most critical stuff first!

The other more common event is that a component on the circuit board shorts; A new circuit board can be swapped on from the same model of drive.

When searching for a donor drive be sure that all of the drive specs match, including factory code, revision number, chip code ect.

The circuit board swap is a simple procedure that requires a Hex screw driver and the donor board.

the circuit dies rather then the physical components within the hard drive. In the event that its not a physical head crash

Indoor Skydiving in Las Vegas

admin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:59:11 +0000

If you have ever had the urge to go skydiving but haven’t been able to take the plunge you may be interested in trying indoor skydiving. Last weekend in Las Vegas i tried indoor skydiving at fly zone and had a blast! It was how ever a bit pricey but it was a life experience. This summer I will defiantly have to try the real thing.

The Gun Store Las Vegas

admin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:00:24 +0000

Aside from shooting a airsoft gun or a .22 I have never really experienced shooting some real guns. Luckily Vegas is the kind of city that has everything and anything, including machine guns! So what guy could resist the chance to take one for a test drive… The gun store is a popular store in vegas that lets you try out just about any gun you can think of. I did the Coalition Package which included a M249 Saw, M16 and a M9 Beretta.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zFMoDQS5jA

Tripple Screen Upgrade

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:33:37 +0000

Dual screen monitors was one of the best upgrades I have ever done. It’s a fact that they improve productivity let you have a much larger work space and are just plain cool. Recently I decided to make the plunge into triple screens. Having such a large desktop is defiantly amazing! It just may be the end to having to switch windows. Now having a triple screen pc, a laptop and an iMac all on one desk may be a little excessive.. but it definitely makes for one kick ass office.

Bootleg Snowbarding the Zi8 at BigWhite – literally!

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:59:18 +0000

Today while going for a ride at Big White I decided to strap the Zi8 on to my boot/leg using some electrician tape and see what kinda shots i would get! This was shot at 720p@60fps however premiere only wanted to do 29fps so its down sampled a bit; However I don’t think you tube supports higher than 30fps so it all works out for now

This video just may be one of the more extreme tests for the Kodak Zi8′s built in image stabilization. In the near future i’m going to have to build some sort of a compact Steadicam

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxupvk8WIPs

How to upgrade your iMac Hard Drive

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:30:53 +0000

Being a techy, before i even booted up my iMac I had to upgrade the hard drive to a 1TB WD Digital Black Drive…. At first glance you would wonder where the heck are the screws! Apple loves clean sleek lines and is all about style. To find the first round of screws you will need to find your self a suction cup to pop out the front glass.

Once you have found your suction cup pick a side of the glass and carefully pull the glass up. (the glass is only held in by magnets)

Next go to your work shop and find a torx screw driver to remove the army of screws holding the aluminum bezel together.

After removing the Ram cover on the bottom of the screen (using a Philips screw driver) Start at the top of the screen and pop the bezel off.

Next you have another batch of torx screws to remove the iMac screen. Once you have removed all the screws there is a plug in the top right of the screen that needs to be unplugged.

You have finally made it! Remove your old hard drive and upgrade away!

Now that you have successfully upgraded your hard drive.. perform the steps in reverse and don’t forget to plug that lcd connector back in. You will need to boot off your osx cd to do a fresh install.

Kodak Zi8 Test footage

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:56:22 +0000

After having the Kodak ZI8 for a while I made a few photos and while snowboaring at Big White ski resort. The video is pretty jerky and fast paced (a steady cam would of done wonders!) but it gives you a good idea of fast paced footage.

View from my room in the morning

Snowboarding above the clouds.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxwlzq00xAY

Note to self: find a steady cam!

To see the full review check out: Zi8 Review